First step to organizing your photos is to GATHER all the photos in one place. This includes consolidating all your digital photos from your phone, messages, email, social media etc into one place. And don’t forget the physical photos which will also need to be gathered. This includes loose photo’s and albums.

A note on old photo albums - they were not made to be kind to your pictures. Please remove the photos (as best you can) and put them in an acid and lignin free album. Having some dental floss nearby can helpful in getting them unstuck from the pages. Worst case is you cut the photo out with the album page stuck to it.
Second step is to SORT. Begin going through and selecting photos you want, deleting or trashing the ones you don’t. Do this with both physical and digital photos. There is no need to keep photo’s that are blurry, unflattering, or of people you don’t know. If you have several of the same subject, pick the best and move on. 

Third step is to ORGANIZE. Create file folders in your photo app with years, events and/or categories that make sense to you. Then drag the photos into the corresponding files. If you are able to rename the photos with year and subject it is helpful in searching. 

For physical photos, grab a photo safe pencil and write on the back. You can use the same file naming system as you did for the digital photos, only difference is the photos will be in a storage container. You can use large index cards as dividers, writing the category or year keep them in order.

During this process put aside any physical photos you want to digitize. You can scan them yourself or find a service that can do it for you.

Fourth step is to MAINTAIN a system. Set aside time to go through and delete unnecessary photos. Doing this makes the end of year sorting so much easier. You will already have the best pics chosen! 
Setting up the system is the hardest, but when you want to find photos of a particular person because you are creating a collage for a party or a scrapbook for a friend, or you want to know what year you took the trip to France - you will be able to find it much easier and not have to scroll through 100’s if not 1000’s of photos.

Command Centers are great for busy homes to manage household tasks, schedules and to-do lists.

These areas include all the information a family needs to keep track of and can be tailored to suit your particular needs. They are located in a central location like a kitchen wall, desk or side of the refrigerator. It can be anything from a mini-office with a desktop file bin to sort and store mail, to a wall with the family’s schedules and activities. 

Command Center’s can include a calendar to keep track of events and activities, a shopping list, a to-do list (sometimes one for each family member), a place for mail and papers that need to be acted on, pens, post-its, stamps, envelopes, tape, a mini file system, an emergency phone list, and charging station area for phones and tablets.

If you have children, this area would be where schools papers that need to be signed or kept would go. Have your children be part of the process and assign a file to each child for their own papers and lists. Be sure what they need is in their reach.  

I use a wall in my kitchen that has a paper calendar for the month, a dry erase board for a weekly calendar so I can put my schedule and appointments (so my husband knows when he needs to come home to let Lula out) and another dry erase board for shopping lists that has space for food and other items we may need from other places, like Home Depot or Costco. On the counter below are pens and post-it’s to leave notes and reminders.

Each family’s needs are different and this area is easily customizable to meet any situation. Have fun with it!

Landing Pads are a smaller version of the Command Center. Depending on your space, you can combine them, but if you are only 1 or 2 people and you have a quieter household, you may choose to have a separate Landing Pad.

These areas are usually set up near the door you come and go from most, like a mudroom or foyer. The idea is that everything that is either coming in or going out lands in this area. It is where you drop your keys, purse, wallet and mail when you come home.

And it is where you put the outgoing mail, items to return, things to drop off at a friends or bring back to work. 

This process helps you always know where your keys are - and keeps you from forgetting what you need to bring with you when you leave.

It is not a place to accumulate stuff, it is a fluid area where things move in and out. 

September has always felt like a new start for me. I’m sure it is connected to the new school year starting - which must be hard wired in me since I haven’t attended school in a long time.

We enter into fall, with cooler weather, and before we know it, the holidays are here. If there is any doubt, go to any store and Halloween decor is everywhere!

I chose Process for September because with new starts and busier schedules, it’s a good time to check in on how you keep track of all the moving parts of your life to be sure it’s working. 

There are a few simple things you can do to help keep yourself - and everyone else in your home - on track. 

When it comes to what to hang and what to fold, consider the space you have, and decide from there.

Basic rule of thumb is that hanging is for business clothes, fancy clothes, blazers/jackets and thing you don't want wrinkled. But if you have a larger closet, I suggest hanging as much as you can. Don’t hang sweaters or heavy knit fabric because it can pull and cause the clothes to be mis-shaped. 

Everyday pants can go either way depending on space. Items that go into drawers should be file folded. It is simple and makes it easier to find things. It also looks so much nicer than stacks.

While there are many tools out there to help get your clothing organized, I have a few go-to items that I like using. I have included links to each item, so just click on it!

Drawer dividers & shelf dividers - these are so helpful in not having piles or stacks fall into each other and they help designate a partially space for things.
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Clear shelf dividers
Drawer dividers


Foldable storage baskets - these are great for storing out of season clothing or items you don’t wear as often or are too bulky to keep in a drawer.

Foldable storage baskets


Fabric storage baskets - these have a wire frame so they keep their shape. They can be used for anything including work out clothes, t-shirts, socks etc. The best part is that they come with a detachable clip label holder so you can label each bin!

Fabric storage baskets


Hangers - there are lots of options and depending on what you have a lot of, you may need some specialty hangers, but my go to are the velvet hangers. They are thin, so they take up less space and they keep garments from sliding off. 

Velvet hangers

If we go by the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule), we wear 20% of what we own 80% of the time, which means there are lots of things in our wardrobe that don’t get worn. 

Ideally our closets would have 80% fashion basics of what we wear daily, with 20% for special event clothes.

A great way to truly see what you wear is to turn all the hangers around in your closet, meaning you hang the hook over the back of the rod. When you put away something you’ve worn, turn the hanger around, putting the hook over the front of the rod. In a years time it will be easy to see what you wear and what you don’t.

August is CLOTHING
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Have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear? Or maybe you have a "closet full of feelings".
​I can’t count the number of times I had to dress for something and in the process of trying things on, I had clothes flung all over the bedroom and still did not have an outfit I liked.
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And I will admit, in the past, I have gone shopping and purchased clothing because I was looking to feel better or just change how I was feeling.
​Now, I go through my clothes once a year and try on everything I don’t routinely wear. If I don’t feel good in the garment, it goes. I do not want to take up valuable space in my closet with items that don’t work for me. I’d rather find something that does.
​Going through clothing can have an emotional component. An outfit may remind you of where you last wore it and depending on the event, can be sad or joyful. Garments can reflect an earlier version of yourself, and letting go of them can feel like you’re loosing part of yourself. We all grow and change over time and our wardrobes should reflect our current lifestyle. A little Marie Kondo tip might help….thank the item and put it on the donate pile.
​As with all things - you can’t organize until you know what you have - so going through your clothes has to come first. Then we can organize.